Ottawa

Birthday and other milestones

Imogen, Jack, Lilly, and Ben's leg: quite a party.

First ride in the bike trailer. We went to the coffee shop down the street.

This helmet is supposed to be for one-year-olds but is comically large and probably does nothing for safety.

Imogen and the Mountain

We went to the park. Imogen spent a lot of time staring at the mountains. She digs 'em.

Skiing with a Baby

We bought our Chariot stroller about two weeks before Imogen was born. We were super bored and anxious with all the waiting for her to arrive, so we burned some time, and dropped about 1100 dollars on the full Chariot package: stroller + infant sling + bike trailer hitch + jogger front wheel + ski trailer set up. 

The Winters of Ottawa are long, cold, and dark, and with a baby, you don't get out as much, which can give you major cabin fever. We figure the ski-trailer is the best money we've ever spent on any baby stuff. After being cooped up for several days, getting out in the open air, kicking and gliding on the groomed tracks in the Gatineaus is a revelation. Imogen likes it too.

We try to get out twice a week. Sometimes to the Gatineaus, sometimes to other wooded preserves around town.

Sometimes the frozen Ottawa river....

The best place though is skiing in the Gatineau hills to one of the many public cabins. Imogen loves looking at all the people and getting cozy by the fire. We always bring a picnic of tea and snacks. We all come away caring a little less about all the day-to-day tedium that can get to you in the cold cold north of Ottawa.

CAKE!!!

Lily had her first birthday today, as well as a party yesterday where she got to devour cake.

Mmm. Cake.

Thanksgiving Fall Hike

We went out to the Gatineau park on Sentier de la Chute.

The Fall leaves were perfect.

Imogen is getting the standing-on-two-legs thing down.

Next week, Imogen is going 'across the pond' to Dresden Germany while her dad goes to a conference. Perhaps her first meat will be bratwurst.

Cyclocross with the kiddos

Stacey and I managed to get the whole gang (minus Crowder the dog, sadly) out to the races on Sunday. Portland has quite the cyclocross scene. Rumor was that there were over 1500 racers. Here, I manage to get Cadel's attention for a photo -

But here we see he's really more interested in watching the riders down by the track. The velodrome is crazy! We weren't supposed to ride on the track surface but some riders took advantage of the banks anyway. Senja was attached to Stacey and napped for most of the race.


Cadel helped me walk my bike back to the car.